Culp, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Culp Incorporated fourth quarter fiscal 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Drew Anderson. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to the CULP conference call to review the company's results for the fourth quarter in fiscal 2024 year. As we start, let me state that this morning's call will contain forward-looking statements about the business, financial conditions, and prospects of the company. Forward-looking statements are statements that include projections, expectations, or beliefs about future events or results or otherwise are not statements of historical fact. The actual performance of the company could differ materially from that indicated by the forward-looking statements because of various risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are described in our regular SEC filing including the company's most recent filings on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Additional risks and uncertainties that we do not presently know about or that we currently consider to be immaterial may also affect our business operations and financial results. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements made today, and each such statement speaks only as of today. We undertake no obligation to update or to revise forward-looking statements. In addition, during this call, the company will be discussing non-GAAP financial measurements. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measurements to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measurement is included in the tables to the press release, included as an exhibit to the company's 8K filed yesterday and posted on the company's website at colp.com. A slide presentation on the company's restructuring plan is also available on the company's website as part of the webcast of today's call. I will now turn the call over to Yves Culp, President and Chief Executive Officer of Culp. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Culp quarterly conference call with analysts and investors. With me on the call are Ken Bolling, chief financial officer, Boyd Chumley, president of our upholstery fabrics business, and Tommy Bruno, president of our mattress fabrics business. I will begin the call with some detailed comments. And as mentioned in the introduction, we have posted a slide presentation to our investor relations website that covers information related to our restructuring plan, which I will speak about in detail today. Ken will then review the financial results for the quarter and the full year. And after that, I'll briefly review our business outlook as we turn the page to fiscal 2025, and we will take some questions. Our sales and operating results for the fourth quarter were in line with our expectations announced on May 1, 2024, when we also announced our comprehensive restructuring actions. Our results for Q4 reflected weakness in industry demand in both of our businesses, driven primarily by ongoing macroeconomic headwinds. Our sales performance for fourth quarter was also affected to some degree by the timing of orders, as many of our larger customers experienced extremely slow conditions beginning in January. Looking back, we posted solid year-over-year sales gains in both of our business segments during our fiscal third quarter, and we were making progress towards our stated improvement goals. However, we faced a significant decline in order levels during our fourth quarter related to demand pressures our customers faced early in the calendar year. The impact on fourth quarter revenue, along with the ongoing macro pressure, led us to take aggressive action to bring our manufacturing costs and capacity in line with current and expected demand. We announced a wide-ranging restructuring plan in early May, with a primary focus on our mattress fabric segment, and we are making steady progress on the execution of this restructuring initiative. The announced adjustments, once fully implemented, will enable us to grow more efficiently and profitably with a lower level of fixed costs. Importantly, these strategic steps do not limit our ability to grow the business, but instead allow us to better optimize our global mix of manufacturing capabilities and long-term sourcing partners. I also want to be sure and emphasize that we are extremely grateful for the support we have received from our valued customers, suppliers, and employees. And we are confident that the strength of these relationships will help drive our recovery I'll have much more to come on restructuring actions momentarily. I do want to comment that despite the mentioned headwinds and challenging macro conditions, there were some positive indicators within Culp's business during fiscal 24, including first, a significant year-over-year operating improvement, albeit still a loss and below our intended targets. And second, consistent and continued operating profits in our upholstery fabrics business, The fiscal year 24 performance for Cole Propulsory Fabrics is significantly improved over last year, even when considering the tough industry condition, thanks to a more profitable mix of sales, better inventory management, improved exchange rates, and reduced fixed costs. Another highlight for Propulsory Fabrics is the sales performance of our hospitality offerings, making up 38% of total segment sales in Q4. While this percentage is skewed by a weaker residential fabric industry environment, our hospitality fabric and window treatment businesses are solid, and we are expanding our roller shade capacity in production in first quarter to North Carolina. We believe there's much to be excited about within cold upholstery fabrics. A third positive indicator is the year-over-year sales growth in our mattress fabric segment. While we are not where we intend to be, The year-over-year performance in mattress fabrics is indicative of our improving market position, focusing on winning new placements with margins in line with current costs. And fourth, we have a strong product innovation and product placements in both segments at improved pricing, position us for a return to higher sales growth as macro conditions improve. We are encouraged by both of our businesses And with our restructuring actions well underway, we believe we are on track to return to profitability post-restructuring, even if market conditions remain at their currently depressed levels. We also maintained a silent balance sheet and a $10 million cash position at the end of the fourth quarter, with a focus on prudent financial management. And we are taking proactive steps to ensure the long-term success of our business. we are diligently focused on executing our restructuring initiatives and therefore strengthening our balance sheet, optimizing our operations and cost structure, and supporting our customers, while also continuing to win new placements with our innovative product portfolio. I'd now like to circle back and discuss further detail on our restructuring actions that are better aligning our business. Again, there's a new slide deck posted on our investor relations page to help illustrate the process. Our plan is comprehensive and involves every facet of our business within both divisions. The vast majority of actions taken are within mattress fabrics, called home fashions, but a review of everything was necessary in this challenging macro environment. The plan was announced on May 1st and commensurately communicated to employees, customers, and vendors. The summary and key takeaway of the plan is we are reducing our North American footprint by closing our mattress fabric weaving, knitting, and finishing facility in Canada, and optimizing our production capacity and overhead into our Stokesdale, North Carolina location. As part of this, our damask weaving business will transition to a sourcing model, primarily with a long-term manufacturing partner. We are also consolidating our operations in Haiti, located on the Dominican Republic and Haiti border into a smaller footprint with just one building. These operational changes reduce our mattress fabric employee base by approximately 240 people, or 35% of the segment's total workforce. While these are very difficult decisions, they are necessary to align our costs with current demand and better position CULP for the future. We have already initiated severance and stay bonus agreements with affected employees, and we are working to optimize our production facilities and sourcing strategies. Productive work is already occurring with our partners on our damask weaving transition, and we are organizing floor space to prepare for knitting and finishing equipment relocation to North Carolina. Our cut and sew operations in Haiti have been consolidated, and the restructuring of our upholstery fabrics finishing operation in Asia is complete. We have also chosen a broker to sell our Canadian facility and we intend to exit and sell that facility in the second half of our fiscal year and hopefully by the end of calendar year 2024, but of course the timing of that will be dependent on the market and interest for the building. More details of the actions and a general timeline can be found on page 5 of the newly posted restructuring deck. Beyond this comprehensive restructuring, our expectation is to return to profitability on a monthly basis sometime in the second half of fiscal 25. Our plan estimates $10 to $11 million in annualized cost and productivity savings, mostly via the mattress fabrics division. But we're also expecting $1 million to $1.5 million in annualized savings from reductions with unallocated corporate and shared services. We expect to incur approximately $8 million in restructuring-related charges, but importantly, only $2.5 million of these charges are cash charges, most of which will be incurred in the first half of fiscal 25. We anticipate funding these cash charges mostly from the sale of excess equipment, and then we also expect $10 to $12 million of after-tax proceeds from the sale of our Canadian facility. A cash and liquidity update as well as a restated FY24 mattress fabrics hypothetical pro forma on operating income that assumes the restructuring was already completed are shown on the new slide deck on pages six and seven. The expected benefit of our restructuring actions on both profitability and liquidity is evident, and this is all assuming no lift in market demand. We are restructuring the business to return to profitability in this current environment, while also preparing Colt to be much stronger as and when demand conditions normalize. I also want to again reiterate that nothing in our plan prevents us from growing the business. Through this process, we are maintaining our preferred network of manufacturing and sourcing capabilities in the United States, Turkey, China, Vietnam, and Haiti. our North American platform will be more efficient and optimized, and we will complement that with strong international options. As we look ahead to fiscal 25, we expect industry conditions will remain pressured for some time, but we believe our fiscal 24 fourth quarter revenue levels represented a bottom point for coal. We have seen some increased sales conditions from the Memorial Day holiday in mattress fabrics, And that, combined with our improved market position in both businesses, is driving some sequential sales growth into Q1 of FY25. We are fortunate at Culp to have an experienced leadership team focused on improvement and growth, and we have navigated many challenges throughout our 52 years. We have strong long-term partnerships with customers and vendors, an emphasis on product innovation leading to an improving market position, a strategic manufacturing and sourcing platform, and most importantly, a solid balance sheet with available liquidity. We believe the strategic actions we are taking will position us for profitable growth opportunities, and we remain committed to delivering sustainable results and enhancing value for our shareholders over the long term. I'll now turn the call over to Ken, who will review the financial results for the quarter, and then I'll review the limited outlook we are providing as we look ahead into fiscal 2025. Thanks, Ed.